Tipaza

Tipaza is the Mediterranean's romance done in ruins: a Phoenician-then-Roman port whose forum, basilicas, theatre and villas now scatter through pine and wild olive on low cliffs directly over the sea, waves breaking against ancient harbour stones and the great cone of Mount Chenoua closing the bay to the west. Albert Camus made the site his personal scripture - a stele near the entrance carries his line about glory and love - and the habit of wandering column to column with the smell of resin and salt remains exactly the pleasure he described. The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, a mysterious stone drum on the ridge inland, completes the classic outing.

History

A small Punic trading post at first, Tipasa was made a military colony by the emperor Claudius and later became a municipium, Colonia Aelia Augusta Tipasensium. Christianity came early and the town became a bishop's see; its patron, Salsa, was a Christian girl said to have thrown the head of the townspeople's serpent idol into the sea. In 484, during the Vandal king Huneric's persecution of the Catholic church, the Catholic bishop was expelled and replaced by an Arian, and in the following decades the city fell into ruin. In 1857 the area was settled again with the founding of the modern town; Stéphane Gsell excavated the basilica of St Salsa, a stele honouring Albert Camus was set up in 1961, and the ruins, a World Heritage Site, were taken off UNESCO's danger list in 2006 (Wikipedia, Tipasa).

What you'll find

• The seafront basilicas - church ruins on the cliff over the coves.
• The forum and theatre - the Roman town under the pines.
• Mount Chenoua - the bay's great western pyramid.
• The Royal Mausoleum - the enigmatic Mauretanian tomb-drum nearby.

When to go

April to June and September to October give warm, pine-scented wandering; summer weekends bring Algiers day-trippers in force - go on weekday mornings. Sunset from the western ruins is the site's signature.

Good to know

Conservation is loose by northern-European standards - paths wander, labels are scarce and the romance is partly the informality; a guide adds the missing layers. Swimming below the ruins is popular but unmanaged. The seafood restaurants by the gate are half the local tradition - budget for lunch.

Nearby

The Chenoua coast, Cherchell's museum town and Algiers.